WASHINGTON – Some Americans could see a lot more drones flying around their communities as a result of a Trump administration test program to increase government and commercial use of the unmanned aircraft. President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead Wednesday, signing a directive intended to increase the number and complexity of drone flights. The presidential memo would allow exemptions from current safety rules so communities could move ahead with testing of drone operations. States, communities and tribes selected to participate would devise their own trial programs in partnership with government and industry drone users. The administration anticipates approving at least five applications, but there is no limit on the number of communities that can join.

Some art makes a lot of sense. If we look at a painting or a photograph of a gorgeous view, its beauty feels natural. The reason for this is that the kinds of landscapes people tend to like correspond to places that would have been a good place for our ancestors to camp1: elevated, with a view of water, wildlife, and diverse flora, especially flowering and fruiting plants. But there are many popular works of art that people enjoy that are less straightforward. Music, for example, can establish patterns, and then add something unusual, perhaps a "blue note" in jazz, that only later gets resolved.

Labor has secured support for a Senate inquiry into the dramatic changes about to hit the workforce in the belief the political establishment is not doing enough to prepare people for the impact of innovation and robotics. The move follows a warning sounded last month by the shadow minister for the future of work and the digital economy Ed Husic who told the AFR's innovation summit that Australia risked being swamped by the consequences of technological change due to the reluctance of government and elements of business to take a lead role in preparing for automation and innovation. Mr Husic said 3.5 million Australian jobs stood to be affected by automation and change, including 250,000 vehicle drivers, while the economy stood to gain $1 trillion by 2030. Yet the rapidly-approaching change was barely audible in the national debate, in part due to the government retreating from its key innovation theme following a backlash during the last election campaign and criticism by former prime minister Tony Abbott.

WASHINGTON-- Some Americans could see a lot more drones flying around their communities as the result of a Trump administration test program to increase government and commercial use of the unmanned aircraft. President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead Wednesday, signing a directive intended to increase the number and complexity of drone flights. The presidential memo would allow exemptions from current safety rules so communities could move ahead with testing of drone operations. States, communities and tribes selected to participate would devise their own trial programs in partnership with government and industry drone users. The administration anticipates approving at least five applications, but there is no limit on the number of communities that can join.

Americans could see a lot more drones flying around their communities as the result of a Trump administration test program to increase government and commercial use of the unmanned aircraft. President Trump gave the go-ahead Wednesday, signing a directive intended to increase the number and complexity of drone flights. The presidential memo would allow exemptions from current safety rules so communities could move ahead with testing of drone operations. States, communities and Native American tribes selected to participate would devise their own trial programs in partnership with government and industry drone users. The administration anticipates approving at least five applications, but there is no limit on the number of communities that can join.

It has become common to joke about how robots are going to take our jobs, and rightfully so: Oxford University researchers estimate that 47% of all current US employment is at high risk to become automated over the next decade or so. But there is positive news: Of the 1.8 million jobs AI will get rid of, the emerging field will create 2.3 million by 2020, according to a recent report from Gartner. And a recent Capgemini report found that 83% of companies using AI say the technology is already adding jobs. A lot of that growth is coming from the technology itself. "We'll continue to see job growth in anything AI-related for the next five to 10 years, which is one of the things that will mitigate the oft-publicized inevitable job loss due to AI-led automation," said Brandon Purcell, an analyst at Forrester.

In an effort to stay relevant, Galaxy's Australian Futures Survey reveals proactive workers have: The future of work is a hot-button topic being tackled by the #WTFAustralia campaign, which aims to start a conversation about the big issues and encourage problem solvers to share their ideas. Readers can join in tomorrow on the What's the Future, Australia? You can ask an expert for advice if you're concerned or there's a chance to win $500 just by sharing your ideas on the issue. Social analyst David Chalke said whether new technology should be a source of worry or excitement for workers depended on their situation. "If you are 50-plus, tired, low paid and low skilled, you should be terrified because the jobs for you in the future are not going to be there, they will be automated," he said.

Is there a global theory for the shapes of fish? But for most of the history of biology, it's not the kind of thing anyone would ever have asked. Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And it's now 100 years since D'Arcy Thompson published the first edition of his magnum opus On Growth and Form--and tried to use ideas from mathematics and physics to discuss global questions of biological growth and form. Stretch one kind of fish, and it looks like another. Yes, without constraints on how you stretch. It's not quite clear what this is telling one, and I don't think it's much. But just to ask the question is interesting, and On Growth and Form is full of interesting questions--together with all manner of curious and interesting answers. D'Arcy Thompson was in many ways a quintessential British Victorian academic, steeped in the classics, and writing books with titles like A Glossary of Greek Fishes (i.e. But he was also a diligent natural scientist, and he became a serious enthusiast of mathematics and physics. And where Aristotle (whom Thompson had translated) used plain language, with perhaps a dash of logic, to try to describe the natural world, Thompson tried to use the language of mathematics and physics.

For many founders the road to raising capital usually takes months, if not years, but for Flamingo founder Dr Catriona Wallace the latest part of her journey took just 12 minutes. The artificial intelligence fintech startup, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange through its holding company Cre8tek, raised $5.1 million last month via a share placement to new and existing institutional, professional and sophisticated investors. The oversubscribed round closed after just 12 minutes, with $10 million in bids vying for the 128.1 million in shares that were on offer for 4c each. "There's recently been a lot more interest and conversation [in Australia] around artificial intelligence, and this is reflected in the success of this raise," Wallace tells StartupSmart. "Like all startup founders I know that raising money is always a difficult task -- we were very pleased that the $5.1 million was oversubscribed and mainly our feeling was of happiness and confidence. It gives us a really significant runway into 2018 to prove our next key milestones."

People are rushing to trade in their iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus devices before the iPhone X releases on Nov. 3. Decluttr, a site that buys electronics from consumers, said iPhone 8 trade-ins are "unusually high" as Apple gears up to launch the 10th anniversary device. Decluttr said it has seen more trade-ins of the 8 and 8 Plus received than any other previous new iPhone launched. The iPhone 8 was released last month and was revealed alongside the iPhone X. The iPhone X has more features than the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, like the Face ID and Animoji.